Tower and Town, May 2017

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Who Needs A New World?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of change. It’s quite comfortable living in the world as it is, you get used to it and get into routines that can be followed without real thought or effort. Even when parts of life are difficult or boring or both, sometimes it is difficult to see a way to do different things without major disruption and more importantly, without losing something. That always seems to be the problem, to get something better in one way, usually means a sacrifice in another. Losing that little bit of weight for example seems simple enough, cut down on the food and step up the exercise, but it involves change. Which in this case means not sitting and watching teatime television with a cup of tea and a bun after work, it means making a sacrifice and going out for a walk or a run - without the bun! So who needs to lose weight anyway, the chair only sags because it is old.

The only trouble is, things can get a bit stale and perhaps life would be better a few pounds lighter, but as the saying goes, there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes but I think there is a third - change. Life has a habit of throwing in the curve ball, just when you think things are nice and settled. Your workplace suddenly realises they need to lose some staff, or your partner suddenly declares they never really liked you anyway. Often even the expected change is far more difficult to manage than anticipated, take retirement for example. All your working life you think, “Oh one day I’ll be able to retire and then I’ll be able to do what I like!” The only trouble is that when retirement looms like a thundercloud over the hill, you suddenly realise that after a month of sleeping in and catching up on the little jobs, suddenly the main activity in your life has gone and the people you have worked with and know can quickly disappear.

For those more organised and thoughtful, this is probably not an issue, as with other foreseeable changes they have been preparing for years and have all kinds of interesting things lined up and can’t wait to get started; please spare some pity for those others of us who suddenly realise that the work has defined you and there is nothing else planned for the future when the salary stops appearing in the bank account every month. It is not a problem if there are a few million in the bank account, there is a wide range of expensive hobbies and options, but retiring on a small pension can be worrying. This can be pretty scary and work suddenly does not seem so bad after all. So what if getting up early and commuting to work is a real drag, it’s still better than daytime television.

Still, best foot forward and all that, there are lots of brilliant things to do when there is more time available that are not expensive. Taking time to watch the buzzards and kites flying around the hills, investigating all those little paths that you have seen all over the place and wondered where they lead, finally getting around to learning that new language; taking that cookery course or the interesting one about developing your photographic skills and most importantly, having time for friends and family.

Suddenly there is a new world out there beckoning; when can I start!

Roy Smith